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1/9/16

Mack’s Morning Report – 1-9-15 – Andrew Barbosa, Yoenes Cespedes, Motherfucking, Sandy Alderson



Good morning.

The Mets signed an interesting minor leaguer last week. 6-8 LHP Andrew Barbosa signed with the Mets after going 9-ST, 4-1, 2.82 for the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League (Indy) last year. He also went 16-G, 5-ST, 5-2, 2.68 for the AA affiliate of Arizona the same season, the team that drafted him in 2002.

Barbosa has never pitched bad (26-19, 3.64) in professional baseball but his problem is he graduated (South Florida) at the age of 24 and he’s now a 28-year old pitcher that has never pitched past the AA level.

I’m sure he’s down the pecking order of available LHRPs, but 423 strikeouts in 346 professional innings isn’t something to walk away from.

Las Vegas currently has 14 pitchers in their pen if you add Barbosa to it. I would consider pitching him in Binghamton where there is more room.


From the mail bag –

Tony asked – A quick question Mack… how representative is Mack’s Mets to the rest of the Mets World? All of you you here still seem to be pretty stuck on the loss of Cespedes. My guess is the majority of Mets fan have moved on. Comments?

          Mack – Thanks for the question, Tony.

First, I think Mack’s Mets is very representative of mature, adult Mets fans that have followed this team for over 30 years. We are a mature site with both mature writers and readers.

I can’t speak for, nor do I follow, the rest of the Mets blog worlds. I stay within my tunnel and offer what I think has been a mistake to let Cespedes go, but I don’t know all the parameters of any negotiation and the Mets may never have got close to him.

Yes, there is still a tremendous amount of discussion here on Cespedes, both by readers and writers, but that should calm down once he signs somewhere.

I’ve moved on and I welcome everyone else to, but I am patient enough to wait out the process.



Mark Healey reprinted an old story on two Mets catchers, Todd Hundley and Mike Piazza… interesting read.

“Motherfucking” is the baseball term for back-stabbing, and for beat reporters, motherfucking means bad-mouthing other reporters to those reporters’ sources. It is one of the profession’s cardinal sins, along with “cock-watching and looking at other writers’ screens,” as one writer put it. (Also forbidden: cheering in the press box and giving off any appearance that you actually enjoy what you do.)

Mack – as many of you know, the Mets beat press (minus Kevin Kernan) treated me like mud for the entire four years the Mets allowed me in the Mets spring training clubhouse. I was a sports reporter for a Savannah newspaper that covered the Sand Gnats and I was no competition to any of them. Still, they chose to make believe I was invisible. So be it.


Sandy Alderson came out swing on his first day back in his office, depending the amount of money the Mets are spending on the team.

His math is interesting… he points out that team payroll has gone from $85mil in 2014 to a projected 2016 salary between $115-$120mil.

He tries to excite us about the $35mil increase over the past two years, but he forgets to mention that last year’s salaries ended at around $110mil and the 2016 payroll which includes projected arbitration raises, will come around $109mil.

The direction of the 2016 Mets seems to be as divisive as a discussion about gun control and we'll get another opinion on Sandy and the team from Bob Gregory tomorrow morning when he guest hosts the morning report for me.



10 comments:

  1. The writers story reminds me of my 6yrs living in lala land in southern California. I even performed a little standup comedy and learned very quickly that I shiuld not expect any support, encouragement or acknowledgement. During open mic nights, places where comics practice their material, I would sit near stage and actually listen and laugh at other comics. However most other comics hid at their tables reading their own notes or kissing ass of the bartender or promoter somewhere in the building and could care less about anyone whose not them on stage.
    Its the nature of the business. And because of the age of 'clicks' and 'ad space' in writing this leads to stolen Iinformation and pretending a news flash is broken by me instead of him.
    And hey, u gotta admit, the jumping the gun on the Wilmer wheeler trade was fun to witness on Twitter ;)

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  2. People should always respect and affirm others. Love both yours and Ernest's work, Mack.

    Ernest, speaking of comedy, I saw a great, great comic, Pete Pitofsky, last nite. Sitting in front, I had the privilege of getting "selected" to waltz with Pete, and we got a chance to do belly bumps. It brought out the Sumo in me. I was very happy he gave my glasses back to me and didn't head bump me.

    I ran an open Mic at the place the night before, a magical evening. Got to sing my version of a few Billy Joel songs (old guys can still ROCK) and a Sinatra standard too.

    Look forward to seeing what Barbosa's got. Let's get started with the de Aza era already.

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  3. Any comments on Revere for Storen? I think Nats lost that one - Storen was good until the Nats F'ed with his head

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  4. That was an interesting question from Tony.

    In my limited view, I don't think that the majority of fans have moved on, or if it is a majority, it's of the 50.5-49.5 type. I think a lot of people are still holding out hope because they see him as some type of "ideal" fit.

    Anyway, I thought your answer to let the process play out is definitely the way to go.

    I've never had the chance to cover an MLB team but I've done both an NFL and NBA team and my experience is that the beat reporters were extremely cliquish. I didn't do it to become buddies with anyone so it didn't bother me at all. I was pleased that I was left alone to write my stories. And I experienced the same thing doing college sports, too.

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  5. Lew -

    The Storen trade may be nothing more than ridding the clubhouse of the only closer anyone wanted on their team

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  6. Brian -

    You run a Mets blog so you know how hard it i to come up with new subjects every day. The 'Cespedes thing' remains a hot topic because he is unsigned. I think it will calm down once he does return to Detroit... did I say that?

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  7. Mack-

    I have the Mets payroll at about $108 million as of now. That's $103+ for 23 of the 25 expected regulars, and another $5 or so for fringe players/minor leaguers that they are obligated to. If Alderson signs the RH hitting 5th OF and aa late inning reliever, his estimate of $115-$120 million is probably not far off.

    I think the Nats got more value than they should have expected for Storen. Revere is a quality OF, a contact hitter with speed, and a good leadoff option. Storen has more upside, but he comes with risk that he may not be the same pitcher he was before the Nats screwed him over.

    And I agree that the vast majority of Met fans (me included) have not yet moved on from Cespedes. With each day he goes unsigned, more and more fans are hoping that his demands come down to where Sandy can not ignore him as an option. If he enjoyed being a Met as much as he says he did, his agent should make the approach to Sandy and give him the opportunity to respond.

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  8. Herb -

    I, and Michael Baron, both have the salaries at $109mil.

    Alderson knows that the fans and beat press will hound him if he doesn't reach his estimates so there probably is another player coming in the $6-11mil range.

    That's won't be Cespedes.

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  9. ... Unless Cespedes is destined for RF and Granderson is shopped.

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